A star born anew

In 1993, when Lin published his third album Entertainment World, which was produced by John Fryer, the producer for Nine Inch Nails, he rejected all interviews and refused to be part of any TV or radio show. Then, at the Golden Horse Award ceremony in 1996, Lin received the Best Film Music award for the song Self Destruction and when accepting the award, he took the trophy and swiftly left in silence, leaving his PR staff and the media in shock.

Finding his way again

"At that time, I felt I was labeled and limited to the role I had to play. I had lost my freedom," said Lin.

Lin retreated further from the media spotlight and went on to star in several of Hou's films, such as Good Man, Good Woman (好男好女), in which he played a leftist victim of the White Terror, and in Goodbye South Goodbye (南國再見南國), playing a young gang leader. With his music he veered into the world of techno and became a DJ.

Eight years after Entertainment World, Lin is poised to come back with his latest creation. His new single A Simple Person (單純的人) was chosen as the theme song for Hou Hsiao-hsien's latest movie Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波).

In the film's opening scene, the starlet Shu Qi (舒淇) walks on a seemingly endless overpass, reminiscing about her youth, while in the background Lin's techno drums, folk guitar and light and distant vocals in Taiwanese fade in: "kind, ordinary, happiness, a simple person ..."

"I'm no longer a star singer anymore. So my vocal singing is just one of the musical instruments I mix with the music," Lin said. As for the lyrics in Taiwanese, he says plainly "It's my mother tongue. I feel weird and unnatural if I have to sing in Mandarin."

Lin's new album, due out at the end of this month, is filled with a variety of styles that covers the full range of electronic music. Along with A Simple Person, other tracks include the trip hop-flavored Fallen (沉淪), the ambient The World (世間) and a techno track called Drugs not for Illness (無病吃的藥).

"He is by nature a kind and simple person. Lin used to be unhappy, and now he is much more relaxed," said a local filmmaker who goes simply by the name Orange (柳丁) and who is a good friend of Lin's.

Lin now lives a healthy, regular life, getting up at 6am, riding his bicycle to the Tamsui riverbank where he does two hours of tai-chi, and then heading to work on his music at his Shihlin studio called Fluidmix (流體音樂), which he opened with his friends DJ Fish and DJ Ty last year.

"In the mornings [after moving recently to Shihlin], I would always pass a group of old ladies chatting in the streets. I saw people could be really happy with a simple and ordinary life," Lin said.

To friends like Angelika Wang and Orange, his ability to change and to try new things are Lin's greatest attributes. "What I appreciate the most about Lin is his ability to negate himself and then move forward to a new challenge," Wang said.

"He knows when to stop and to change directions. He is always blossoming," Orange said.

Reflecting on the adaptability that his friends so admire, Lin says philosophically "You have to keep moving, flowing, and not take everything so hard. But never stop, because once you're stuck in one place, you're dead."